Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes is a fantastic book! I cannot believe, that as much as I read as a youth, I missed this treasure! I have read it aloud with my daughter in the past, and now I am reading it aloud with my two sons. We own all three copies and each of us holds one to follow along. We take turns reading aloud, usually about two pages each. Homeschoolers often have good reading comprehension, but their pronunciation of large words is not always accurate because many words aren't commonly heard in everyday language. By following along, each with his own book as we read, the words are seen and heard and the story is shared among us.We laugh at the funny parts and are pulled into the drama of the exciting, and tragic portions.
This book has some wonderful characters. Johnny is an arrogant hothead who is a natural born leader until he is severely injured in a cruel intentional stunt. After meeting Rab, a very calm and cool guy who befriends him, he becomes involved in the behind the scenes planning of the American Revolution. He meets the famous men of Boston like Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere and participates in the Boston Tea Party. Throughout the book he learns a lot about pride and emotional passions, and grows into a better young man because of his experiences.
There are many fine books written for young people that I want to share with my boys. Their days of homeschooling will probably be coming to a close at some point, maybe sooner than later. I intend to make it a high priority to continue on with these read-alouds this year. They are an extremely pleasant way for us to spend time together and so far we are having a wonderful time sharing this tale.
